1. Error in RAS AdCom Election Ballot-new ballots to be sent

One of the candidates for RAS Adcom was inadvertently omitted from the ballot which was mailed in October to RAS voting members (higher grade members and graduate students). Because of this error it will be necessary to send out new ballots. Votes made on the faulty ballots will be discarded, so even if you have already voted, please look for the revised ballot and submit your vote again. The revised ballotwill be printed on colored card stock to make it stand out and to avoid confusing the original and revised ballot. The new ballots will be mailed on November 27 and must be returned by Janurary 8, 2007. Results will be announced by January 15, 2007. We apologize for the inconvenience and urge all eligible members to vote. The slate of candidates to serve a three year term beginnin in January 2007 includes: # Asama, Hajime # Chatila, Raja # Dillmann, Ruediger # Fu, Li-Chen # Fukuda, Toshio # Henderson, Thomas # Kumar, Vijay # Laumond, Jean-Paul # Orin, David # Siegwart, Roland # Snyder, Wes # Wang, Michael For the bios and statements of the candidates, see http://www.ieee-ras.org/news

2. New RAS VP Elects

At the October 14, 2005 meeting of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Administrative Committee the following individuals were elected to serve as Vice Presidents-Elect of the Society during 2007. They will begin their terms as Vice President beginning January 1 2008.

3. RAS Society Awards Nominations Due March 1

Two new RAS awards were approved by IEEE Technical Activities Board in 2006:

IEEE Inaba Technical Award for Innovation Leading to Production.

IEEE Invention and Entrepreneurship Award

Nominations are also solicited for the following RAS Society Awards:

Pioneer Award

Early Government or Industry Career Award

Early Academic Career Award

Distinguished Service Award

Chapter of the Year Award

IEEE Fellow Nominations

IEEE Fellow Nominations must be submitted to the IEEE by March 1, 2007. Information and Nomination kits are online at the IEEE Fellows Page.

If you are considering nominating a friend or colleague for election to Fellow, please contact Awards Committee Corresponding Co-Chair Katsushi Ikeuchi, who can assist you with assembling the materials for the nomination and obtaining the required references.

Requicha is a longtime member of the Robotics and Automation Society and is a Co-Chair of the RAS Technical Committee on Micro and Nano Robotics. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE and was cited by Thomson Institution of Scientific Information (ISI) as "one of the worldwide 282 Computer Scientists listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge as highly cited researchers for the decades 1980-1999."

T-Nanotechnology, established in 2002, ranked number 7 in citations among electrical engineering journals, according to the 2004 Journal of Citation Reports, published by the Thomson ISI.. The IEEE Nanotechnology Council sponsors the Transactions. The Council comprises 18 IEEE Societies, including the Robotics and Automation Society, which was one of the Council's founding societies.